In the spring of 1955 the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) sent to the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris "50 Years of American Art" a vast retrospective exhibition staggering for the sheer breadth of its contents. 1 The organizers of the exhibition featured not only an imposing selection of twentieth century American painting and sculpture as one might expect, but also architecture, photography, printmaking, typography, film and mass-produced industrial design items. As such this was the

more »

... and most aggressive statement to date about the vigor and originality of American visual culture ever to have been circulated within Europe. 2 Not surprisingly, given its ambitiousness, "50 Years of American Art" has been the subject of periodic art historical investigation over the last three decades. 3 Yet a review of the literature on the topic reveals that the terms of this somewhat sporadic discussion are relatively tightly circumscribed. Specifically, art writers have identified "50 Years of American Art" as noteworthy for one of two chief reasons both of which relate to the generous quota of abstract expressionist painting in the exhibition: First, as a crucial prelude to its much vaunted successor "The New American Painting" (1958) reputed to have secured abstract expressionism's international preeminence just three years later. 4 And second, as a tool of cultural diplomacy deployed by MoMA during the cold war to promote a positive image of the U.S. in Europe. 5 Here I am referring to the well-known view that MoMA promoted the expressive freedom of abstract expressionism to distinguish American art from its socialist counterpart and to convince Europeans that the militarily and economically dominant U.S. defended the same values as they did. 6 [Image 1: Willem de 6/20/08 2 Kooning Gansevoort St., 1950St., -1951. Studies of this kind have been crucial in encouraging a wholesale critique of abstract expressionism's canonical status within and beyond the U.S. With their focus upon drawing out the non-aesthetic agendas at play within MoMA's international exhibition program these studies are not without relevance to the present discussion. With that said, however, this paper proposes a marked shift of focus from these earlier accounts. While others have persuasively argued that abstract expressionism represented one of the U.S.'s more powerful cultural weapons, this paper considers the implications of sending abroad the other cargo featured in "50 Years of American Art" -the architectural models, furniture, flatware, kitchen appliances and tools -shipped into Paris in the same container. 7